Alistair Smythe

Comparision of the voice over actors who have been the voice of Alistair Smythe with sound clips and images.

Alistair Smythe is one of the various villains in the Spider-Man series whose comic book debut was in The Amazing Spider Man Annual 19 in November of 1985. Alistair Smythe is a expert in robotics whom is known for creating the Spider Slayers to go up against Spider-Man (often due to revenge as he would blame Spidey for what happened to his father Spencer). Traditionally Alistair was depicted as needing a wheelchair (often due to a lab accident) but he would regain his ability to walk when becoming the Ultimate Spider Slayer (though the circumstances why this would happen do differ on which story we are talking about). Alistair has worked with other characters in the series such as Norman Osborn and J. Jonah Jameson but he often has his own agenda and is normally not all that loyal to the people that he works with.

EDITOR'S OPINION

Today on the Spider Man VC section we take a look at this man known for the Spider Slayers namely... ALISTAIR SMYTHE! Let us begin...

Maxwell Caulfield- Maxwell's voice and performance does have an intellectual feel which suited the role well. I also did like on how Maxwell's performance works well with how revenge-crazed Alistair is and it does have a rather sinister feel to it which is a fine example of the voice work in the show.

Nolan North- First of all Nolan's voice also has a rather intellectual feel as it does suit this game's somewhat alternate take on the character here. Nolan's performance does also suit on how while Alistair seems to be a rather affable fellow (well at first) but ends up becoming increasingly insane. Basically its a pretty good example of the voice work in the game and a good example of Nolan's handiwork.

Overall both of these guys did pretty well with the role in their own way so I am not sure who to go with here.

Nolan North gets my vote. He has a more manipulative and controlling sound to his voice. He sounds like the guy who's trying to be the good guy, but is the bad guy and is going slowly mad. It has more emotion to it.

More on the subject of this VC, both are good, but I have to give this one to Nolan (wow, what a surprise). I like how he's more subtle and refined, but can still become menacing, making him much more versatile with the voice.

@NCZ I think it's funny how people are aching for realism in a setting inhabited by a college student who gets bitten by a radioactive spider and can now shoot web from his wrists to fight a flying goblin man who chucks exploding pumpkins at innocent bystanders.

@pokemastanumba1 My point is that it's ridiculous to be fully expecting complete and total realism in a genre about brightly-dressed people with unnatural powers who take the world's law into their own hands and not immediately use that power to satiate their desires for money and women.

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko had the right idea of making superheroes act like us (that is to say horny, greedy, morally conflicted, etc.) since it managed to make superhero stories even more fantastic, but so much amateur comic writers put too much emphasis on the psychological problems and social consciousness that today everybody expects their superhero shows and stuff to be dead-serious and no fun at all.

@CatsTuxedo Hmmm...are you implying that if there were superpowered mutants in real life, all of them would abuse those powers, effectively making them villians? That's actually more unrealistic IMO, because there are mutants that easily relate to regular human beings (like The Incredibles).

As for superhero shows, they're not always meant to be just fun and comedic, especially today.

@pokemastanumba1 What you, on the other hand, are implying is that pursuing money, women and/or power is inherently evil. I can say without a doubt that everybody has dreamed of those things at one point or another and that hardly makes them as evil as the next person. As I mentioned before, Lee, Kirby and Ditko made the first superhero stories to feature heroes that actually behaved as the average human reader would, and that combination of realistically-motivated characters and fantastic settings and situations is the reason for their popularity. It's when writers take that realism thing too far and suck the fun and humor out of the preposterous world of comics that I have a problem with.

I definitely agree that Lee, Kirby, and Ditko had amazing ideas and came up with some of the greatest stories for any Marvel fan to enjoy, but comics are supposed to evolve over time, and with that, cartoons and their characters also adapt to the present. It's just making progress.

Anyway, I probably went a bit off-topic here, but you know, that happens.

@CatsTuxedo Peter was like that at first but because of the death of his Uncle Ben, he realized that with great power comes great responsibility. If you had powers, would you use them for personal gain or would you use them to help people? In the Amazing Spiderman movie, they took a more realistic approach with it whereas instead of the spider that bit Peter being radioactive, the spider was genetically engineered and it made Peter into a cross species.

@CatsTuxedo Well, see, what I meant is that Nolan's version talks more like a genuine person. I never said he was better than Max, who's clearly having fun in the role. They're both good on their own merits.

Besides, something can be realistic without being dark and gritty. Look at the Avengers and Amazing Spider-Man movies that came out this year. They were realistic, but they were still fun and relatively light-hearted. They're pretty much perfect examples of how to do a superhero movie.

And of course, like the guy below me said, there's "good over-the-top and goofy" and bad "over-the-top and goofy". Good would be something like Kid Icarus: Uprising, which clearly doesn't take itself seriously and is a blast because of it. Bad would be '60s Batman, which is just plain cheesy.

@coolgeek176 The basic idea of superheroes in general, that is to say people with unnatural and sometimes godly powers who take the world's/local commute's law into their own hands, just screams "goofy and over-the-top", so stories that are sincere, true-to-themselves, know what they are and what they're out to do in that regard have a better standing in my eyes. Don't get me wrong, I do respect guys like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko for the then-novel idea of giving superheroes and supervillains realistic motivations since that actually makes the stories feel even more out-there when juxtapositioned with the fantastic, bizarre premise and settings. It's when amateurs go too far with the psychological melodrama and suck out whatever fun can be had with the story is what I'm against.

Let me just say that if you're so against the idea of superheroes not being anything but goofy and silly, there is a cartoon on the air right now called "Ultimate Spider-Man" that caters perfectly to people like you, in my opinion. ;-) :-P

@TheVengeanceKnight I suggested superhero stories should be more goofy and over-the-top, but they still need to be sincere and honest about what they're doing. From what I know of USM, it doesn't have that sincerity and seems to have no other agenda but to get ratings and toy sales.

@TheVengeanceKnight Way to completely miss what CatsTuxedo is saying. It's not that superhero stories should be ONLY goofy and over-the-top. It's that they need balance. They should take their content seriously without going so far up their own asses that they forget that they're being built on a ridiculous premise. Like many have said, "The Avengers" nailed that balance. Basically, the ideal superhero stories should be adult minded but "kids at heart."